Canada will soon legalize edibles—and the market is enormous

Canada will soon legalize edibles—and the market is enormous

The year-long wait to legalize edibles is much like edibles themselves: it takes a bit more time to kick in, the effects last a little longer and the experience is not quite the same as smoking flower. After all, when smokable buds and oils arrived for legal sale on Oct. 17, the pot-infused foods—like cookies, brownies and gummis—that took up a large chunk of the black market remained illegal. But they’re coming. And when this next phase of cannabis legalization takes effect in October 2019, it will usher in a plethora of new rules and regulations, while signalling yet another psychedelic shift in Canadian society.

“It’s going to be very complex,” says Jo Vos, managing director of Leafly Canada, a cannabis information company that keeps a close eye on Canadian legislation, acknowledging that “it was a smart approach” on the federal government’s part to hold back edibles.

Legalizing a new product for Canadians to consume, Vos notes, means that Canada will likely have to make amendments to several other pieces of legislation, including the Food and Drugs Act, the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and the Cannabis Act itself. However, lifting the ban on edibles in 2019 doesn’t just mean having more marijuana-filled pastries. Vos expects the law’s passage to open up a vast new market ?lled with everything from cannabis creams and gels to transdermal patches and ingestible capsules.